It's Our Secret

Chapter 43 - Euros

AUTHORS NOTE (07/06/2023)
Beware that this was written nearly a year before the actual euros took place and the winners and losers in the story may be different from what happened in reality.

The Euros felt like a blur. They went by so quickly, and as we all had to manage the tournament, I also had the added pressure of keeping my heart stable. I couldn't let it fail me again. I couldn't let it collapse on me once more.

We got to the final of the Euros, after beating Spain in the semis. We were set to verse Holland at Wembley, and it was going to be massive. There was expected to be nearly 70,000 people watching, the largest ever crowd at a women's football match. Not only would there be large numbers of English supporters, but the seas of orange were expected to turn up as well.

As Georgia and I lay in our beds the day before the final, I could feel myself not focused.
"George," I said, turning to look towards Georgia, who was laying on the bed beside mine.
"Yeah," she replied.
"I'm kind of shitting myself, about tomorrow."
"Me too," she answered, "but I think that's normal. We're meant to be nervous. We're playing in the final of the Euros, if we weren't nervous, that would be an issue."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," I added.
"We just need to go out there with confidence," she continued to say, "and realise that we are one of the best teams in the world, and we can win it, if we put our minds to it."
"But," I started to say, "what if we lose?" Georgia looked at me, with a confused expression printed on her face.
"Then we lose, and we come back stronger next year for the World Cup and the year after for the Olympics." I nodded my head, knowing she was right.

We got ready for bed, and as we both lay awake, with the lights turned off, I heard her whisper something.
"Ett," she said, quickly.
"George," I answered.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure," I replied.
"Were you ever going to tell me about Leah?" A shocked expression appeared on my face, and I quickly turned on the light.
"What?" I asked her, confused, "what do you mean, me and Leah?"
"Don't need to get all defensive," Georgia said, sitting up, "you and her. You guys had a thing, but broke it off."
"How do you know?" I asked her, still confused and bewildered.
"Well, I didn't know for sure until just then," Georgia said, laughing slightly, "I only had very big suspicions."
"Ah, you're such a bitch," I said, laughing. We both were sitting on the ends of our beds, looking at each other, the bedside table between us.
"I knew when you left Manchester," Georgia started to say, "a lot of things pointed towards it, and if I wasn't your roommate, I wouldn't have been able to piece it all together. But, you and Leah grew quite close, closer than what you had ever been in the past. You also stopped talking to Keira for a good six months, which added to it. In Tokyo, I saw you grab her hand and squeeze it, and you gave each other a look. And the other day, when we saw Jordan and Leah hugging, you kind of laughed slightly, like you were pissed off or you knew the inevitable was going to happen. That's when I knew, for sure, that something had happened."
"Seriously George?" I said to her, laughing.
"What?"
"You couldn't have just asked me?"
"Well, I assumed you would have told me if you'd wanted to."
"Trust me, I did want to but so many things meant that I couldn't, and now, it all fell apart." I lay back on my bed, facing the ceiling. Georgia came over and lay beside me, grabbing my hand.
"It's okay," she said to me, "it's okay." And for the first time in months, I finally let myself spill the tears that had been building up inside of me. My eyes watered, and let loose, unleashing all the emotions that were not able to escape prior.
"George," I said, through deep breaths, "everything was just too confusing, and I couldn't do it anymore. I just couldn't."
"It's okay," she said again, placing her arms around my head, and hugging me. Although Keira is my twin, and I love her more than words can explain, something about having a best friend that is removed from your family makes things easier to explain. There's less complications, and Georgia was my person with no complications.